Watching Monday
Jan. 5th, 2015 02:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brigdhWhoa, I am way behind on this. Let me attempt to catch up!
Sleepy Hollow
2.11
Siiiiiiiiiiiigh. Okay. Things I liked: Crane wanting a motorcycle! Fight scene with zombies in Revolutionary War uniforms!
I'm indifferent on Henry's turn. It wasn't particularly surprising (clearly someone was going to switch sides, though I think I might have preferred Headless to Henry), but I suppose it could lead to interesting things. I'll wait and see.
Things I didn't like: basically everything else. But specifically, I didn't like the repeated focus on Crane's jealousy and lack of trust in Katrina. I'd support their break-up if I thought this meant they were actually going to be adults now (or if it was going to lead to Crane/Abbie), but I suspect it's just in the service of melodramatically getting back together in the season finale, which is not what I want. It's not even that I don't ship Ichabod/Katrina; I'd be perfectly happy with them as a couple if they could have a functional or interesting relationship, but instead the show just keeps repeatedly telling us how much in love they are while showing boring anti-chemistry.
I'm also not 100% opposed to Irving dying, since presumably his soul being owned by Henry means Irving will still be around as an undead ghost or something and that could be a really cool plot, but this whole season has already wasted his character so much that I have little faith. Also, if he had to die, why not just have their guess about him being able to use the magic sword be wrong? That would have been a much better plot than "death from random shallow cut". It could have led to interesting drama about the characters' willingness to risk people's lives on unfounded guesses! But no, dumb pointless death instead, why not.
Of all the things this show needed, the sudden introduction at this late point of the old "white=good; black=bad" metaphor for the trees was definitely not one of them.
At least Jenny was in this episode, even if only to stand around in the background and do nothing. And of course we had to bring in Hawley too. My theory is that someone on the show thinks Hawley fills the "snarky badass" role, and so they've given him a lot of what would have been Jenny's lines or actions.
The second half of the season starts tonight, and I'm really hoping things have improved over the break.
As is traditional, I saw a lot of movies over the holidays. When my parents pay for the tickets, I become much more into going to the movies! :D
Top Five
Really great. Chris Rock plays not-quite-himself, a famous comedian trying to promote his new, more serious movie. I was very impressed by how it managed to be both incredibly funny and also deeply sincere on various topics (alcoholism, fame, family, etc). Not every moment worked (personally, I was disconcerted by the running joke about how terrible his movie, on the Haitian rebellion, was, particularly given that I had just reread Crimson Angel a week or two before), but overall it was really wonderful. I particularly liked Rock's fiancee, a reality star who could have been a shallow caricature, but was sympathetic and insightful.
Into the Woods
Disappointing. I don't quite know why; I liked all the actors well enough, and I'm not hugely offended by any of the cuts or rearrangements, but it just didn't work for me. "Hello, Little Girl" and "I Know Things Now" were even more distressing than usual, because of how young the actress was (I mean, I guess she's actually 16? But she looked so little!), and while I understand the reasons behind trying to break up the two-act structure, I think it was ultimately a bad idea. The end of the movie just seemed to drag on without point or plot, and a lot of what should have been big revelations (witches can be right! giants can be good!) didn't even seem to make sense (what was she right about?).
Ah, well. There were some good parts! "Agony" was just perfect, absolutely fantastic, and "Last Midnight" was dramatic and awesome.
The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies
Also disappointing. The whole trilogy has been, for me, but at least the first two movies had great scenes here and there (especially the riddle scene in the first one, and the Smaug/Bilbo scene in the second), but this one lacked even that. Ultimately I think it would have been better as two movies, or in particular Smaug's death should have gone at the end of the second one instead of the beginning of this one. The battle scenes were mostly too video-game or bad slasher movie for me, and there wasn't much to this movie other than battle scenes. Oh, and a lot of Bilbo/Thorin, which would be more awesome if I shipped it.
The very ending, repeating the beginning of the first LotR movie, was sweet though!
The Imitation Game
Surprisingly not disappointing! Despite my total disinterest in WWII movies and biopics about tortured geniuses, as well as some negative reviews I'd read, I ended up liking this. It's still not the movie you have to see to make your life complete, but it was a perfectly pleasant and enjoyable two hours. I even liked Benedict Cumberbatch!
Sleepy Hollow
2.11
I'm indifferent on Henry's turn. It wasn't particularly surprising (clearly someone was going to switch sides, though I think I might have preferred Headless to Henry), but I suppose it could lead to interesting things. I'll wait and see.
Things I didn't like: basically everything else. But specifically, I didn't like the repeated focus on Crane's jealousy and lack of trust in Katrina. I'd support their break-up if I thought this meant they were actually going to be adults now (or if it was going to lead to Crane/Abbie), but I suspect it's just in the service of melodramatically getting back together in the season finale, which is not what I want. It's not even that I don't ship Ichabod/Katrina; I'd be perfectly happy with them as a couple if they could have a functional or interesting relationship, but instead the show just keeps repeatedly telling us how much in love they are while showing boring anti-chemistry.
I'm also not 100% opposed to Irving dying, since presumably his soul being owned by Henry means Irving will still be around as an undead ghost or something and that could be a really cool plot, but this whole season has already wasted his character so much that I have little faith. Also, if he had to die, why not just have their guess about him being able to use the magic sword be wrong? That would have been a much better plot than "death from random shallow cut". It could have led to interesting drama about the characters' willingness to risk people's lives on unfounded guesses! But no, dumb pointless death instead, why not.
Of all the things this show needed, the sudden introduction at this late point of the old "white=good; black=bad" metaphor for the trees was definitely not one of them.
At least Jenny was in this episode, even if only to stand around in the background and do nothing. And of course we had to bring in Hawley too. My theory is that someone on the show thinks Hawley fills the "snarky badass" role, and so they've given him a lot of what would have been Jenny's lines or actions.
The second half of the season starts tonight, and I'm really hoping things have improved over the break.
As is traditional, I saw a lot of movies over the holidays. When my parents pay for the tickets, I become much more into going to the movies! :D
Top Five
Really great. Chris Rock plays not-quite-himself, a famous comedian trying to promote his new, more serious movie. I was very impressed by how it managed to be both incredibly funny and also deeply sincere on various topics (alcoholism, fame, family, etc). Not every moment worked (personally, I was disconcerted by the running joke about how terrible his movie, on the Haitian rebellion, was, particularly given that I had just reread Crimson Angel a week or two before), but overall it was really wonderful. I particularly liked Rock's fiancee, a reality star who could have been a shallow caricature, but was sympathetic and insightful.
Into the Woods
Disappointing. I don't quite know why; I liked all the actors well enough, and I'm not hugely offended by any of the cuts or rearrangements, but it just didn't work for me. "Hello, Little Girl" and "I Know Things Now" were even more distressing than usual, because of how young the actress was (I mean, I guess she's actually 16? But she looked so little!), and while I understand the reasons behind trying to break up the two-act structure, I think it was ultimately a bad idea. The end of the movie just seemed to drag on without point or plot, and a lot of what should have been big revelations (witches can be right! giants can be good!) didn't even seem to make sense (what was she right about?).
Ah, well. There were some good parts! "Agony" was just perfect, absolutely fantastic, and "Last Midnight" was dramatic and awesome.
The Hobbit: the Battle of the Five Armies
The very ending, repeating the beginning of the first LotR movie, was sweet though!
The Imitation Game
Surprisingly not disappointing! Despite my total disinterest in WWII movies and biopics about tortured geniuses, as well as some negative reviews I'd read, I ended up liking this. It's still not the movie you have to see to make your life complete, but it was a perfectly pleasant and enjoyable two hours. I even liked Benedict Cumberbatch!
